Hunt, whose motto was, “Some people give their bodies to science; I give mine to baseball,” had been hit by pitches more often than anyone during his playing days. He led the National League in getting hit by pitches in each of his final seven Major League seasons; in all but his final season (1974), he was the Major League HBP leader, his 16 “plunks” outdone only by Bobby Grich’s 20. He was hit by 25 pitches in 1968, 25 in 1969, 26 in 1970, 50 in 1971, 26 in 1972 and 24 in 1973.

Hunt said in a July 2000 interview with Baseball Digest that he really began to get hit by pitches after being traded to San Francisco. "But," Hunt asked, "why would you hit me to face Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Jim Ray Hart?" [2]

On September 29, 1971, against the Chicago Cubs at Jarry Park, Hunt was hit by a Milt Pappas pitch to give him 50 on the season, obliterating the post-1900 record of 31 by Steve Evans, although Hughie Jennings still holds the all-time record for 51 HPBs in 1896.[3]Pappas argued to home plate umpire Ken Burkhart that the pitch was directly over the plate, that Hunt got hit by the ball without even trying to get out of the way. Earlier in the year, Pappas had also contributed #27 in the Hunt collection, prompting Cub manager Leo Durocher to cry foul after home plate umpire Augie Donatelli awarded Hunt first base on that pitch. Cincinnati Reds manager Sparky Anderson had a similar complaint after Hunt was hit by a Jim McGlothlin pitch on August 7 of that year; the HBP was Hunt’s 32nd of the season, which broke theNational League record set by Steve Evans of the 1910 St. Louis Cardinals.

On April 29, 1969, Hunt tied a Major League record with three HBPs in a game against the Cincinnati Reds. One of those "plunks" was against former Met teammate Jack Fisher.

Hunt always insisted that he never deliberately got hit by a pitch, that he always stood straight up at the plate and simply leaned into the pitch.

Upon his retirement, his 243 HBPs were a career record. Don Baylor would break that record in 1987 and retire with 267 HBPs. Craig Biggiowould break Baylor’s career record in 2005 and retire at the end of the 2007 season with 285 HBPs.

Personal

Since 1986, Hunt has operated an instructional baseball camp in Wentzville, Missouri.

... At first, though, Hunt wasn’t playing anywhere. Manager Casey Stengel already had installed Larry Burright at second by the time Hunt was promoted, leaving Hunt without a position. Every day, Hunt would dutifully perform his role as the team’s bullpen catcher, warming up the starting pitcher before the start of the game. “Then I’d sit on the bench,” he remembers, “and watch Larry Burright make bad plays at second base.”

After watching Burright struggle for a while, Hunt finally had enough. After a game in a Philadelphia, he sought out Stengel for a conference. “I said ‘This is Ron Hunt, number 33. I’m not a bullpen catcher. I’m a second baseman. Why don’t you give me chance to play there?’” He laughs. “I guess Casey must have liked something about me, because he said ‘You really want to play that badly, son? Okay. You’re in the lineup tomorrow.’”

Once in the Mets’ lineup, Hunt never left. He finished the season with a .272 batting average in 143 games, numbers that stood out on a lousy Mets team. The following season, playing full-time for the first time in his career, he hit .303 and was named to the National League All-Star team, the first Met given the honor of being a starting player in the Midsummer Classic. Yet for Hunt, that All-Star Game – played at brand-new Shea Stadium in Queens – was more memorable for what happened one night earlier.

“My grandpa, who was the first person to really get me into baseball, came out to Shea Stadium to watch me in the game,” Hunt says, “and the night before the game, he and I went over to the clubhouse. The people there allowed him to go in and walk on the field with me. And then, while we were standing there, on the field at Shea Stadium, they turned the stadium lights on for him, just so he could see what it was like. He loved that.” Hunt pauses. “And so did I.” ...

Hunt said in a July 2000 interview with Baseball Digest that he really began to get hit by pitches after being traded to San Francisco. "But," Hunt asked, "why would you hit me to face Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Jim Ray Hart?" ( Pictured Left to Right Jim Ray Hart, Willie McCovey, and Willie Mays. )